Pat Shurmur Talks Chiefs, Brady Quinn, and Romeo Crennel

(Opening statement)- “We’ve got our preparation going for the Chiefs. This week’s fourth captain will be Mitchell Schwartz. He’s another good choice. Of course, when you go through our starting lineup we’ve got a lot of rookies and guys that have played a lot of football. Mitchell’s done a good job this year. I thought they chose wisely.”

(On if he has a personal relationship with Romeo Crennel)- “I’ve met Romeo a few times. I can’t say that I know him extremely well, although I do know this, I respect him a great deal. Everybody that does know him thinks he’s an outstanding human being, a great man and he’s obviously distinguished himself as an outstanding coach. That’s what I know about him.”

(On if his respect for Romeo Crennel has grown since their recent tragedy)- “There’s no question. I think in situations like this your character becomes revealed. Romeo revealed that he is an outstanding leader.”

(On if what the Chiefs are going through puts things into perspective for him as a coach)- “I just think that a lot of what we do as coaches is we lead and inspire and try to lead our guys through situations that are not always ideal. Let’s face it. I don’t know if anybody is going to finish the season undefeated. When there’s losses involved and you’re pushing and trying to build and develop, we all know there’s tough days and how do you inspire your guys to push through those tough days. I think that’s a lot of what we as coaches are responsible for.”

(On what he saw from Brady Quinn last week)- “I think he had an outstanding game last week. He led his team to victory, number one. He made some good throws. He’s a big physical strong guy. You guys probably know more about him than I do. You’ve probably asked him more questions than you’ve asked me. He uses his legs so if things break down and he has a running lane, he’s willing to use his legs. He played a good game last week.”

(On if the Chiefs’ running game is one of their strengths)- “No question. They’re one of the finer running teams in the league. Jamaal Charles, I’ve mentioned it already, when you hand him the football he can score from wherever they hand it to him. That’s very dangerous. You don’t get that from a lot of running backs and of course, they spell him with Peyton Hillis. Peyton plays in situations and he, of course, had some production last week. He had a touchdown. Their run game is very good, they’ve got a very good offensive line and it’s well coordinated and they’re getting production from it.”

(On how you keep a player focused who was expected to do well but things haven’t panned out)- “I think what happens is a lot of it comes from the individual. The ability to just go and work and prepare yourself to play and when you get an opportunity to play, try to play as well as you can. That’s where the players tend to motivate themselves and the ones that are around for a very long time learn how to do that. We as coaches try to inspire that as well.”

(On how he felt about all the cameras following him and the team around for the show NFL Road Tested and of he has seen it yet)- “I did get a chance to preview it and watch it. I thought it was very well done. I think what that show shows you is there’s a lot of very talented, hard working people behind the scenes that help make this thing go. I hope that’s what folks take away from the episodes that they watch. The cameras have been around. I’ve mentioned it before, my biggest concern when there’s cameras around is, number one, it doesn’t become a distraction to the process, which of course, I saw they were very professional and that wasn’t the case. And of course, any kind of a leaking of competitive advantage which I don’t think is the case. For the most part, I thought it revealed a lot of hard working people behind the scenes that do a lot of work. I think that’s a good thing.”

(On Jordan Cameron making the play he did during the last drive at Oakland and if that is the player the team envisioned when drafting him)- “Yeah, we envisioned him to be a playmaker in the passing game and then be able to block well enough where we can play him on all three downs. That’s how we envisioned him – to be a starting tight end in our offense. We use two tight ends and two receivers quite a bit so you’ll see him in there a lot with Ben (Watson). We have packages where we use him alone with three receivers and then he can go in and fill in anywhere in the tight end position. He’s gotten a lot of good work this year and he’s showing up in terms of his production as a receiver, which is what we brought him here to do.”

(On how Cameron’s blocking has improved this year)- “I think he’s really developed as a blocker. It’s very difficult to play the tight end position if you’re a guy that’s going to play on all three downs. I think he’s made very good strides in terms of his ability to block.”

(On if he is aware of the former Browns players and coaches now with the Chiefs and that they might have extra motivation facing their former team)- “I’m aware. Every game that’s played you’ll find maybe it’s a small amount of people, there is crossover. There’s enough changing that goes on in the league with players and coaches where you have people that are playing against a team that they once worked for. It’s players and coaches alike for the Chiefs. I think what’s important as we get ready to play this football game is it’s the Browns playing the Chiefs. That’s what’s important and there’s always crossover, there’s always carryover. Some of the people that are coming to play us you know very well. I’m sure you always want to do well against a team you used to work for. I get that, but we also have a prideful group of guys that want to win for our team and our city.”

(On how the offensive line performed against Oakland)- “I thought they battled. We did get challenged a little bit in some areas. Brandon (Weeden), I think did a good job of standing in there and making some good throws with a little bit of heat. Again, getting sacks and giving up sacks is a coordinated effort. Brandon does, for the most part, a pretty good job of getting rid of the football. He made some quality throws in terms of people in his face. In terms of the offensive line and how they played, we knew that was going to be a physical, gritty game just like this week. The Chiefs front seven is outstanding. I think they battled. They did a good job.”